What do you think?
Rate this book
The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land
On the morning of November 4, 2019, an unassuming caravan of women and children was ambushed by masked gunmen on a desolate stretch of road in northern Mexico controlled by the Sinaloa drug cartel. Firing semi-automatic weapons, the attackers killed nine people and gravely injured five more. The victims were members of the LeBaron and La Mora communities—fundamentalist Mormons whose forebears broke from the Latter-day Saints Church and settled in Mexico when their religion outlawed polygamy in the late nineteenth century. The massacre produced international headlines for weeks, and prompted President Donald Trump to threaten to send in the U.S. Army.
In The Colony, bestselling investigative journalist Sally Denton picks up where the initial, incomplete reporting on the attacks ended, and delves into the complex story of the LeBaron clan. Their homestead—Colonia LeBaron—is a portal into the past, a place that offers a glimpse of life within a polygamous community on an arid and dangerous frontier in the mid-1800s, though with smartphones and machine guns. Rooting her narrative in written sources as well as interviews with anonymous women from LeBaron itself, Denton unfolds an epic, disturbing tale that spans the first polygamist emigrations to Mexico through the LeBarons’ internal blood feud in the 1970s—started by Ervil LeBaron, known as the “Mormon Manson”—and up to the family’s recent alliance with the NXIVM sex cult, whose now-imprisoned leader, Keith Raniere, may have based his practices on the society he witnessed in Colonia LeBaron.
A descendant of polygamist Mormons herself, Denton explores what drove so many women over generations to join or remain in a community based on male supremacy and female servitude. Then and now, these women of Zion found themselves in an isolated desert, navigating the often-mysterious complications of plural marriage—and supported, Denton shows, only by one another.
A mesmerizing feat of investigative journalism, The Colony doubles as an unforgettable account of sisterhood that can flourish in polygamist communities, against the odds.
In The Colony, bestselling investigative journalist Sally Denton picks up where the initial, incomplete reporting on the attacks ended, and delves into the complex story of the LeBaron clan. Their homestead—Colonia LeBaron—is a portal into the past, a place that offers a glimpse of life within a polygamous community on an arid and dangerous frontier in the mid-1800s, though with smartphones and machine guns. Rooting her narrative in written sources as well as interviews with anonymous women from LeBaron itself, Denton unfolds an epic, disturbing tale that spans the first polygamist emigrations to Mexico through the LeBarons’ internal blood feud in the 1970s—started by Ervil LeBaron, known as the “Mormon Manson”—and up to the family’s recent alliance with the NXIVM sex cult, whose now-imprisoned leader, Keith Raniere, may have based his practices on the society he witnessed in Colonia LeBaron.
A descendant of polygamist Mormons herself, Denton explores what drove so many women over generations to join or remain in a community based on male supremacy and female servitude. Then and now, these women of Zion found themselves in an isolated desert, navigating the often-mysterious complications of plural marriage—and supported, Denton shows, only by one another.
A mesmerizing feat of investigative journalism, The Colony doubles as an unforgettable account of sisterhood that can flourish in polygamist communities, against the odds.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 2022
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews
July 23, 2022
2.5 rounded to 3. This was super disappointing. I was ready for a great true crime story involving radical sects of the LDS church. What I got was history of the Mormon religion and the Mexican cartels, sandwiched with a true crime story during the first and last ten percent. I enjoyed the Mormon history but became very bored with the other bits. I’m sad this didn’t live up to the hype.
May 17, 2022
Thanks to Liveright Publishers for an ARC—and please send me more of your great books to review!!!
#LoveReviewingGreatBooks
Not sure why this great book isn’t rated higher—unless LDS and Mormons are rating it 😂
Back in 2019 I clearly remember being horrified by the true story of 3 women who planned to drive in Mexico as a group with their children and they were ambushed and massacred, killing not just the mamas but also 6 innocent children and wounding another 5 children. Getting this whole backstory was shocking and gripped me to the edge of my seat. Learning the complicated backstory of LDS and Mormons was really interesting too and author Sally Denton (who has ties with the Mormons) did a great job providing the history. I read half the book on day one because each chapter ends with you saying, “What the heck did I just read because I can’t believe these people lived like this and did THAT?!!!” If history isn’t your thing skip a few chapters and keep reading to more current times and you won’t believe what was happening right under our noses. This Book Does Not Disappoint.
#TruthIsWayyyyySttangerThanFiction
#LoveReviewingGreatBooks
Not sure why this great book isn’t rated higher—unless LDS and Mormons are rating it 😂
Back in 2019 I clearly remember being horrified by the true story of 3 women who planned to drive in Mexico as a group with their children and they were ambushed and massacred, killing not just the mamas but also 6 innocent children and wounding another 5 children. Getting this whole backstory was shocking and gripped me to the edge of my seat. Learning the complicated backstory of LDS and Mormons was really interesting too and author Sally Denton (who has ties with the Mormons) did a great job providing the history. I read half the book on day one because each chapter ends with you saying, “What the heck did I just read because I can’t believe these people lived like this and did THAT?!!!” If history isn’t your thing skip a few chapters and keep reading to more current times and you won’t believe what was happening right under our noses. This Book Does Not Disappoint.
#TruthIsWayyyyySttangerThanFiction
June 1, 2022
The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land by Sally Denton is a historical account and deep-dive investigation into several Mormon fundamentalist colonies in Mexico, who settled there (on land funded by the LDS church) so they could practice polygamy and escape persecution from the United States government. It centers around a 2019 massacre of a caravan of Mormon women and children traveling along roads run by the Mexican drug cartels. Though the victims were members of both the La Mora and LeBaron clans, the book focuses mainly on the history, conflicts and practices of the latter. "Any attempt to investigate or comprehend the murders requires first an understanding of that history, which goes back nearly two centuries. The LeBarons' story is not only an epic of pioneer America but also a tale of secrecy, polygamy, blood feuds, conquest, and exploitation, wrapped in a radical interpretation of Mormon doctrine and steeped in a myth of persecution."
Yes, all that and more. This heavily researched book, though slow a times, is an account of atrocities and the radical beliefs and practices fueled by male egos and their carnal desires coupled with a lust for power, an art for brainwashing, and a disregard for any sort of moral compass. To say that the people in this fundamental sect base their belief system on Jesus Christ and call themselves saints is testament to the kind of crazy in their Kool-aid. And it's scary crazy, complete with incidents such as the Meadow Massacre in 1857, "the worst butchery of white people by other whites in the entire colonization of America...approximately 140 unarmed men, women and children were murdered." And, more recently, blood feuds over who was "the One Mighty and Strong," where Ervil LeBaron, aka the Mormon Manson, killed his brother, "only the start of [his] ruthless campaign, the first of 33 known murders he committed... he ordered Mafia-style hits on his many rival polygamist leaders and apostates from his church whom he called, 'The Sons of Perdition,' invoking blood atonement and proclaiming himself 'God's Avenger.'"
It is tempting to say that this kind of behavior stems from the shallow gene pool (it is common practice for polygamists to marry first cousins) from a few who are obviously mentally ill. But the themes that run throughout the history of the Mormon faith are disturbing at best. Denton explains her relation to the story, saying, "Although I am not Mormon, I am descended from a long line of Mormon pioneer women, beginning with my great-great-grandmother, who was converted in London in 1849 by a future Mormon Prophet and brought her seven children with her to Zion by sailboat, steamer and wagon train. Her daughter-in-law, my great grandmother, made a solo trek from Denmark to Utah in 1851 as a nine-year-old girl. She walked from St. Louis to Salt Lake City, pushing her few belongings in a handcart." The history Denton reveals is a sad one, full of the subjugation of women. Her great-grandmother was a second wife to her husband, and left to raise his children on her own without financial help, while still expected to tithe 10 percent of her income to the church. One may ask why she didn't leave. Because the church teaches (or at least the branch that adheres to polygamy, which still exists in communities today) that the only way for a woman to get to heaven is to be "pulled through the veil" by her husband. And that the more wives a man has, the more godlike he is.
This book was well researched, with over 50 pages of citations, and eye-opening. The colonies in Mexico today that were part of the massacre have not seen justice for their family members, partly because the Mexican government could not pinpoint or prosecute the perpetrators. Their enemies are many. This book is also a history of Mexico and the drug cartels, the indigenous farmers who feel their land and water is being taken by the Mormon colonies and even the NXIVM sex cult, who had alliances with the LeBarons. It's all a bit much, but as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways, the author, and Liveright Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book that I won't soon forget.
Yes, all that and more. This heavily researched book, though slow a times, is an account of atrocities and the radical beliefs and practices fueled by male egos and their carnal desires coupled with a lust for power, an art for brainwashing, and a disregard for any sort of moral compass. To say that the people in this fundamental sect base their belief system on Jesus Christ and call themselves saints is testament to the kind of crazy in their Kool-aid. And it's scary crazy, complete with incidents such as the Meadow Massacre in 1857, "the worst butchery of white people by other whites in the entire colonization of America...approximately 140 unarmed men, women and children were murdered." And, more recently, blood feuds over who was "the One Mighty and Strong," where Ervil LeBaron, aka the Mormon Manson, killed his brother, "only the start of [his] ruthless campaign, the first of 33 known murders he committed... he ordered Mafia-style hits on his many rival polygamist leaders and apostates from his church whom he called, 'The Sons of Perdition,' invoking blood atonement and proclaiming himself 'God's Avenger.'"
It is tempting to say that this kind of behavior stems from the shallow gene pool (it is common practice for polygamists to marry first cousins) from a few who are obviously mentally ill. But the themes that run throughout the history of the Mormon faith are disturbing at best. Denton explains her relation to the story, saying, "Although I am not Mormon, I am descended from a long line of Mormon pioneer women, beginning with my great-great-grandmother, who was converted in London in 1849 by a future Mormon Prophet and brought her seven children with her to Zion by sailboat, steamer and wagon train. Her daughter-in-law, my great grandmother, made a solo trek from Denmark to Utah in 1851 as a nine-year-old girl. She walked from St. Louis to Salt Lake City, pushing her few belongings in a handcart." The history Denton reveals is a sad one, full of the subjugation of women. Her great-grandmother was a second wife to her husband, and left to raise his children on her own without financial help, while still expected to tithe 10 percent of her income to the church. One may ask why she didn't leave. Because the church teaches (or at least the branch that adheres to polygamy, which still exists in communities today) that the only way for a woman to get to heaven is to be "pulled through the veil" by her husband. And that the more wives a man has, the more godlike he is.
This book was well researched, with over 50 pages of citations, and eye-opening. The colonies in Mexico today that were part of the massacre have not seen justice for their family members, partly because the Mexican government could not pinpoint or prosecute the perpetrators. Their enemies are many. This book is also a history of Mexico and the drug cartels, the indigenous farmers who feel their land and water is being taken by the Mormon colonies and even the NXIVM sex cult, who had alliances with the LeBarons. It's all a bit much, but as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways, the author, and Liveright Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book that I won't soon forget.
March 14, 2023
The description of this book promised one thing, but delivered another.
What I was expecting to see, is the massacre in full focus, but instead I got a (slightly biased, in my opinion) history of the LDS Church, while the crime itself took up a very small portion of the book.
I understand that to go forward, you must go back. Especially for those readers who are unfamiliar with Mormonism and the church's violent offshoots, but then the blurb should've been written differently.
To put it simply, if I wanted to refresh my historical knowledge I'd go reread No Man Knows My History. I will however, give bonus points for citing Fawn Brodie.
One thing that I really did like about this is the NXIVM angle, I haven't seen that covered anywhere else, so more bonus points for that.
Also, about the narrator. The one chosen for this book has a bit of a nasaly voice at the start, eventually it mellows out. I'm glad it did, because it probably would've kept distracting me.
What I was expecting to see, is the massacre in full focus, but instead I got a (slightly biased, in my opinion) history of the LDS Church, while the crime itself took up a very small portion of the book.
I understand that to go forward, you must go back. Especially for those readers who are unfamiliar with Mormonism and the church's violent offshoots, but then the blurb should've been written differently.
To put it simply, if I wanted to refresh my historical knowledge I'd go reread No Man Knows My History. I will however, give bonus points for citing Fawn Brodie.
One thing that I really did like about this is the NXIVM angle, I haven't seen that covered anywhere else, so more bonus points for that.
Also, about the narrator. The one chosen for this book has a bit of a nasaly voice at the start, eventually it mellows out. I'm glad it did, because it probably would've kept distracting me.
July 11, 2022
This book started out with a very compelling true story: the savage murders of three young Mormon mothers and their children trapped in their cars. The women and children were attacked by 100 assailants with machine guns and even a rocket launcher. But the author went so far into the weeds of Mormon history and the histories of the families of the victims that the true story arc of the horrible assassinations got lost, for me anyway, in the minutia. A strong editor was needed.’
October 4, 2022
1.5 stars. Honestly I was so bored :(
April 17, 2023
I’ve read a handful of Le Baron/ Le Baron adjacent memoirs over the past few years and I’ve had mixed feelings about them (some super interesting and very well-constructed, others totally shambolic). In this context, I found this zoomed out, journalistic overview of the history of the Le Baron settlement in Mexico really interesting. A great overview which locates this settlement and family in time and place, in Mormon history and in international, and political relations. A worthy dive into a niche interest.
June 2, 2022
This one was a tough one for me. I was interested in the facts surrounding the modern-day murders, and the part of the book that described those was interesting to me. The problem for me is that the author torched my trust in her in the historical part of the book tracing the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I do not know if it is personal animus or poor research that led to the many factually incorrect statements, but it made it quite difficult for me to evaluate the truthfulness of the rest of the book. I realize the author has written other books on this history, including one on the Mountain Meadows massacre. So I think she should know, and was disappointed with her assertions that John D Lee was "Brigham Young's favorite apostle" as he was not, as far as I could discover, an apostle at all, and there was no evidence provided that he was a "favorite" anything. Also simple statements that five minutes with the Book of Mormon could refute, such as the assertion that Mormon, father of Moroni, led the migration to the Americas. ??? There were many more in my notebook for me to check up on further, but I was disappointed in this.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
December 13, 2022
I saw this book at my library and was attracted to reading it for a couple of reasons. I remember this incident well as living half the time in Southern California and having grown up there, the events in Northern Mexico often feel close to home. Second I loved the book by Miriam Toews, Women Talking. It also deals with women who survive in a religious atmosphere that places them directly in an inferior position.
This is the non-fiction account of a deadly massacre which killed three women and 6 children (injuring 5 more) from the two fundamentalist Mormon colonies in Northern Mexico. The story starts with the events that occurred on that day in November 2019 and travels both back and forward in time to describe the forming of these Mormon outposts and who or what might have perpetrated this crime.
There is more than one story here, I learned about the environment and hostilities in the region, including drug cartels, water rights, outsiders vs indigenous groups and much about the Mexican government. Yet my favorite part of the book, the part that propelled me forward was the story of the early Mormon church and its society of polygamy that continues to exist in its more extreme factions. This was in most aspects a fascinating read. Yet I felt it fell short in the aspect I was most interested in--the reason why women would choose to join in and remain in plural marriages that give them so little voice.
The author does a great deal of investigative reporting here with well done references and a personal knowledge of this religion that adds to the writing. I did listen to some of this on the well done audio read by Ann Richardson but I found the print with the addition of pictures was my first choice for this reading. Also the acknowledgements and the references used for the writing make the print more complete and also gave insight in who the author is and how this story was investigated, information that would have been lost with the audio alone.
I found it a most interesting story about Mexico, the drug cartels, Mormons, the early history of this religion and polygamy. It is well written and at 200 pages of text very readable. I would recommend it if you have any interest in these subjects or just want a better understanding of a story behind the headlines. It is a good one.
This is the non-fiction account of a deadly massacre which killed three women and 6 children (injuring 5 more) from the two fundamentalist Mormon colonies in Northern Mexico. The story starts with the events that occurred on that day in November 2019 and travels both back and forward in time to describe the forming of these Mormon outposts and who or what might have perpetrated this crime.
There is more than one story here, I learned about the environment and hostilities in the region, including drug cartels, water rights, outsiders vs indigenous groups and much about the Mexican government. Yet my favorite part of the book, the part that propelled me forward was the story of the early Mormon church and its society of polygamy that continues to exist in its more extreme factions. This was in most aspects a fascinating read. Yet I felt it fell short in the aspect I was most interested in--the reason why women would choose to join in and remain in plural marriages that give them so little voice.
The author does a great deal of investigative reporting here with well done references and a personal knowledge of this religion that adds to the writing. I did listen to some of this on the well done audio read by Ann Richardson but I found the print with the addition of pictures was my first choice for this reading. Also the acknowledgements and the references used for the writing make the print more complete and also gave insight in who the author is and how this story was investigated, information that would have been lost with the audio alone.
I found it a most interesting story about Mexico, the drug cartels, Mormons, the early history of this religion and polygamy. It is well written and at 200 pages of text very readable. I would recommend it if you have any interest in these subjects or just want a better understanding of a story behind the headlines. It is a good one.
July 14, 2022
I signed up for crazy cuckoo bananas and I got crazy cuckoo bananas. Denton covers the history of the La Mora and Colonia LeBaron Mormon fundamentalist sects in Mexico, known by a few names that I don't really care to copy down here because 1) they keep changing and 2) I have a firm stance against respecting religious organizations that systematically violate human rights :)
A consistent criticism of this book I see is that Denton seems not to provide an explanation as to why women stay in these polygamist sects which consistently degrade and abuse them and their children. This line of questioning is, in my opinion, incredibly ignorant, and is not too far off from the question of "why don't women just leave their abusers?" Well gosh, I don't know, because every economic and social pressure in their lives demand that they stay? And in regards to this book, Denton actually does enumerate these myriad factors that lead to women staying, including the fact that women are purposefully kept pregnant nearly their entire lives in order to discourage them from leaving, are prohibited from owning property of any kind, and are essentially kept in an insular little police state where they are constantly under surveillance by the men in their community. And besides that--do people really believe that women do not enthusiastically abuse other women? Has Amy Coney Barrett taught them nothing? Power is power, and is just as intoxicating no matter what the gender its wielder--the numerous women in this book who gladly commit murder and other atrocities at the behest of their male leaders demonstrate this time and time again. I get so frustrated with this line of questioning because it seems to imply that these women just woke up one day and thought "hm, think I'll willingly surrender all of my human rights today." Not to mention the fact that these inquiries seem to inevitably lead to lurid, exploitative coverage of the sexual exploitation these women and girls face. It's cheap and in 2022 we should know better.
Denton is not a Nobel Prize-winning writer, but this does a capable job at covering everything from the founding of Mormonism with Joseph Smith, through the schism between the mainstream LDS and the fundamentalist sects following the 1890 manifesto prohibiting polygamy. She also shows how economic control is essential to these sects, from how it originated with Joseph Smith's Nauvoo, Brigham Young's Deseret, and now these Mexican colonies, which not only control all of the economic interactions internal to their members, but also engage in exploitative business dealings with local indigenous Mexicans in order to maintain control over their vast tracts of arable (and profitable) land. The murders of the women and their children are tragic, but you can recognize that someone has been victimized while at the same time agreeing that they should be held accountable for victimizing others--if anything, Denton does not condemn the LeBaron, Langford, and Johnson families enough for their rapacious business dealings with their neighbors, their weaponization of their dual citizenship, and their insistence on special treatment from the Mexican government. These people wanted to defend Keith Raniere, of all people! Hold the people who killed those women accountable, but for god's sake, please do not leave this book with the idea that anyone described within is some kind of persecuted martyr. They marry 12 year olds.
A consistent criticism of this book I see is that Denton seems not to provide an explanation as to why women stay in these polygamist sects which consistently degrade and abuse them and their children. This line of questioning is, in my opinion, incredibly ignorant, and is not too far off from the question of "why don't women just leave their abusers?" Well gosh, I don't know, because every economic and social pressure in their lives demand that they stay? And in regards to this book, Denton actually does enumerate these myriad factors that lead to women staying, including the fact that women are purposefully kept pregnant nearly their entire lives in order to discourage them from leaving, are prohibited from owning property of any kind, and are essentially kept in an insular little police state where they are constantly under surveillance by the men in their community. And besides that--do people really believe that women do not enthusiastically abuse other women? Has Amy Coney Barrett taught them nothing? Power is power, and is just as intoxicating no matter what the gender its wielder--the numerous women in this book who gladly commit murder and other atrocities at the behest of their male leaders demonstrate this time and time again. I get so frustrated with this line of questioning because it seems to imply that these women just woke up one day and thought "hm, think I'll willingly surrender all of my human rights today." Not to mention the fact that these inquiries seem to inevitably lead to lurid, exploitative coverage of the sexual exploitation these women and girls face. It's cheap and in 2022 we should know better.
Denton is not a Nobel Prize-winning writer, but this does a capable job at covering everything from the founding of Mormonism with Joseph Smith, through the schism between the mainstream LDS and the fundamentalist sects following the 1890 manifesto prohibiting polygamy. She also shows how economic control is essential to these sects, from how it originated with Joseph Smith's Nauvoo, Brigham Young's Deseret, and now these Mexican colonies, which not only control all of the economic interactions internal to their members, but also engage in exploitative business dealings with local indigenous Mexicans in order to maintain control over their vast tracts of arable (and profitable) land. The murders of the women and their children are tragic, but you can recognize that someone has been victimized while at the same time agreeing that they should be held accountable for victimizing others--if anything, Denton does not condemn the LeBaron, Langford, and Johnson families enough for their rapacious business dealings with their neighbors, their weaponization of their dual citizenship, and their insistence on special treatment from the Mexican government. These people wanted to defend Keith Raniere, of all people! Hold the people who killed those women accountable, but for god's sake, please do not leave this book with the idea that anyone described within is some kind of persecuted martyr. They marry 12 year olds.
October 15, 2023
This is one of three nonfiction books that I have read in the last month that didn't quite live up to my expectations. Some things that the author set out to achieve were done well but others either missed the mark or have been done better elsewhere.
For starters, readers looking for an in-depth investigation into the murders of eight women and children that took place in northern Mexico in November 2019 will likely be disappointed. The first and last chapters deal with this subject as comprehensively as is possible considering the limits that the situation imposes, but it still doesn't provide any concrete proof as to who commit these heinous crimes. In the end, I was left with even more possible culprits than I considered before I picked up the book.
As a descendent of polygamous Mormon families, Sally Denton is well-equipped to provide a good summary of the foundation and history of the church founded by Joseph Smith and led for decades by Brigham Young. She pulls no punches, describing how church missionaries recruited European women into the church, denying forcefully the rumors that polygamy was one of their key tenets until they were in Utah with little chance of escape. Denton also didn't shy away from describing the events of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when church members, likely on Young's orders, disguised themselves as Paiute Indians and slaughtered an entire wagon train of California-bound settlers, and its aftermath, when Young betrayed many of his trusted lieutenants and either aided the government in its prosecution of the killers or quietly arranged a more permanent means of insuring their silence. To this day, most church members that I have talked to know little to nothing about these events, even though they are a well documented part of the public record.
Brigham Young's betrayal of the Mountain Meadows participants and the subsequent revelation to church prophet Wilford Woodruff that God wanted them to end plural marriage, that prompted a schism in the church that saw may hardline polygamists leave the church and try to create their on promised land. Some of these went to Mexico. Even though the history of these LDS offshoots is convoluted and extremely bloody, this story, too, is one that Denton was able to tell well, with her innate empathy for the plight of women trapped in a subservient role from which few could escape.
Denton's skillset fails her when it comes to describing the history of the Mexican cartels. This, too, is a convoluted and very bloody story and many great journalists have paid with their lives for their attempts to tell it. Even so, there are books and articles out there that can give one a better understanding of the subject than Denton was able to do.
Bottom line: Denton did a good job of describing the history of the LDS church and of the groups that split off from it after it rejected polygamy. For those reasons, this book is worthwhile, and I appreciate the effort that went into writing it.
For starters, readers looking for an in-depth investigation into the murders of eight women and children that took place in northern Mexico in November 2019 will likely be disappointed. The first and last chapters deal with this subject as comprehensively as is possible considering the limits that the situation imposes, but it still doesn't provide any concrete proof as to who commit these heinous crimes. In the end, I was left with even more possible culprits than I considered before I picked up the book.
As a descendent of polygamous Mormon families, Sally Denton is well-equipped to provide a good summary of the foundation and history of the church founded by Joseph Smith and led for decades by Brigham Young. She pulls no punches, describing how church missionaries recruited European women into the church, denying forcefully the rumors that polygamy was one of their key tenets until they were in Utah with little chance of escape. Denton also didn't shy away from describing the events of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when church members, likely on Young's orders, disguised themselves as Paiute Indians and slaughtered an entire wagon train of California-bound settlers, and its aftermath, when Young betrayed many of his trusted lieutenants and either aided the government in its prosecution of the killers or quietly arranged a more permanent means of insuring their silence. To this day, most church members that I have talked to know little to nothing about these events, even though they are a well documented part of the public record.
Brigham Young's betrayal of the Mountain Meadows participants and the subsequent revelation to church prophet Wilford Woodruff that God wanted them to end plural marriage, that prompted a schism in the church that saw may hardline polygamists leave the church and try to create their on promised land. Some of these went to Mexico. Even though the history of these LDS offshoots is convoluted and extremely bloody, this story, too, is one that Denton was able to tell well, with her innate empathy for the plight of women trapped in a subservient role from which few could escape.
Denton's skillset fails her when it comes to describing the history of the Mexican cartels. This, too, is a convoluted and very bloody story and many great journalists have paid with their lives for their attempts to tell it. Even so, there are books and articles out there that can give one a better understanding of the subject than Denton was able to do.
Bottom line: Denton did a good job of describing the history of the LDS church and of the groups that split off from it after it rejected polygamy. For those reasons, this book is worthwhile, and I appreciate the effort that went into writing it.
July 28, 2022
I remember the media coverage of the LeBaron/La Mora killings, particularly because I was also living with my children in a country with a history of narco-trafficking and gang violence at the time. I had no idea about the greater context of the LeBaron and La Mora communities as they’d existed in Mexico for a century. Denton contextualizes this massacre within the greater history of FLDS communities and their participation in acts of violence, misogyny, and colonization throughout the American southwest and northern Mexico, as well as a much-appreciated, nuanced look at the ways in which the US bears part of the responsibility for cartel violence, particularly regarding gun policy.
March 25, 2024
It's very frustrating when the description of the book is not what the book actually is about. I ran into this issue with Sally Denton's The Colony. It is billed as an investigation into a sect of the LDS church and the polygamy within and how it may or may not tie to a massacre in Mexico. Most egregiously, the description suggests Denton will "explore what drove so many women over generations" to be a part of this colony.
Instead, this book feels about 10% about the massacre, 60% about how the Mormons ended up in Mexico, and the final 30% about Mexican politics and the drug cartels. There is a chapter on "sisterhood" at the end which feels horribly tacked on. It's as if everyone forget they were going to market this book as about women in this church but then forget about them for most of the narrative.
The actual story clocks in at a little over 200 pages. There are some interesting tidbits throughout but the major problem is that nothing feels adequately detailed. The connection with the NXIVM cult is bizarre and I learned a few things. Unfortunately, this is a book that forgot to pick a reason for existing and instead tried to do a little of everything.
Instead, this book feels about 10% about the massacre, 60% about how the Mormons ended up in Mexico, and the final 30% about Mexican politics and the drug cartels. There is a chapter on "sisterhood" at the end which feels horribly tacked on. It's as if everyone forget they were going to market this book as about women in this church but then forget about them for most of the narrative.
The actual story clocks in at a little over 200 pages. There are some interesting tidbits throughout but the major problem is that nothing feels adequately detailed. The connection with the NXIVM cult is bizarre and I learned a few things. Unfortunately, this is a book that forgot to pick a reason for existing and instead tried to do a little of everything.
Read
August 8, 2022Intense journalistic investigation into the November 2019 brutal slaying of three polygamous mothers and their six children in the Mexican desert. She delves deep into the history of the polygamous Mormon cults in the isolated Mexican desert towns of LeBaron and La Mora. The murders were never fully resolved, with leading theories being that they were either targeted by one of the competing drug cartels or revenge of the local farmers who they had historically abused via agricultural expansion and water hoarding. The chapters of early Mormon history are extremely interesting. She paints an unflattering picture of Joseph Smith as a sexually deviant grifter and conman and Brigham Young as an egomaniacal power obsessed zealot, who routinely repressed his political enemies. Her central observation that polygamy was a tool to preserve male dominance and to surpress women's automny is insightful and consistent with these cultures where women are completely subservient and men are all powerful. The chapter on the Mountain Meadow Massacre is stunning; her well documented conclusion that the slaughter of 120+ people was directly ordered by Brigham Young and was primarily economically motivated. Young then refused to protect those he ordered to commit the crimes from prosecution from the US government. The Mexican cult communities were established when Mormonism disavowed polygymy and several Joseph Smith disciples left the mainstream Mormon church and the US in the late 1800's. Interesting read but like most historical novels, a bit heavy on detail.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2022
Plenty here makes for a great story, and this is really well-researched, but it could have used a better editor.
June 15, 2022
To be honest I didn't recall the news story about the group of Mormon women and children massacred in Mexico in 2019 so this story was all news to me and The Colony is a fascinating and thorough account of the shocking incident.
I also had no idea that there were Mormon colonies in Mexico, so the book gives just enough background of their history for context and a little bit about the Mormon faith as well so that the stage is set for why these murders were committed.
All in all a solid read for true crime readers and people who enjoy investigative journalism.
Thank you to Liveright publisher (an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company) for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I also had no idea that there were Mormon colonies in Mexico, so the book gives just enough background of their history for context and a little bit about the Mormon faith as well so that the stage is set for why these murders were committed.
All in all a solid read for true crime readers and people who enjoy investigative journalism.
Thank you to Liveright publisher (an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company) for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
October 13, 2022
It's a solid read, but I don't think it adds much to what was publicly already known about this event. Seeing Keith Raniere pop up was an unpleasant surprise, though on reflection maybe it shouldn't have been.
And adding a chapter on the Mountain Meadows Massacre just felt like lurid scaremongering to point at Mormons Are Bad. I mean, the massacre was bad, and Mormons are bad for doing it -- don't get me wrong. But it had nothing to do with the polygamist aspects of the religion, which was the driving narrative focus of this book. She could've left this part out and lost nothing.
And adding a chapter on the Mountain Meadows Massacre just felt like lurid scaremongering to point at Mormons Are Bad. I mean, the massacre was bad, and Mormons are bad for doing it -- don't get me wrong. But it had nothing to do with the polygamist aspects of the religion, which was the driving narrative focus of this book. She could've left this part out and lost nothing.
March 31, 2024
The Mormon history was interesting and informative. I’ve always wondered why anyone, especially women, would fall for a cult like this……and I’m even more amazed after reading this book. However, I thought the book would be about the women and children who were ambushed and not so much about general history of the origin of Mormonism.
August 3, 2022
Fascinating exploration of the FLDS church, their presence in Mexico, the cartels and the water rights crisis.
March 2, 2024
When the massacres that happened in this book took place, I remember trying to figure out how a mom who lived in the ND oil fields had ended up murdered in a Mexican ambush with 4 of her 7 kids. In those first few days there was very little online that referenced the long standing Mexican Morman polygamist communities these women were a part of.
More recently, I listened to part of a podcast that documented Ervil LeBaron’s insane murder cult that is intertwined with that community. It was unsatisfying and confusing so I quit listening.
These two things come together in much greater detail in this book.
This book is a compulsive read. It’s starts off with the details of the 2019 massacre, goes back and gives a fascinating history of the 100ish years of Mormonism and polygamy within the faith, covers the Mountain Meadows massacre (which I had never heard of!), detours into the NXVIM cult (it’s connected to Colonia LeBaron in a strange turn of events), and circles back to the drug trade and unrest in Mexico. Phew! It is A LOT.
The book does kind of lose steam at the end but I think it feels that way because there is actually no clear resolution to the 2019 massacre. Read it for the Mormon history alone though! I cannot get over that there is a Brigham Young university, named after a raging fucking madman who ordered murders of his own countrymen, innocent women and children. I mean outside of the fact that he was a grifter who accumulated personal wealth at the expense of his followers, which makes him bad enough. Wtf Utah!
More recently, I listened to part of a podcast that documented Ervil LeBaron’s insane murder cult that is intertwined with that community. It was unsatisfying and confusing so I quit listening.
These two things come together in much greater detail in this book.
This book is a compulsive read. It’s starts off with the details of the 2019 massacre, goes back and gives a fascinating history of the 100ish years of Mormonism and polygamy within the faith, covers the Mountain Meadows massacre (which I had never heard of!), detours into the NXVIM cult (it’s connected to Colonia LeBaron in a strange turn of events), and circles back to the drug trade and unrest in Mexico. Phew! It is A LOT.
The book does kind of lose steam at the end but I think it feels that way because there is actually no clear resolution to the 2019 massacre. Read it for the Mormon history alone though! I cannot get over that there is a Brigham Young university, named after a raging fucking madman who ordered murders of his own countrymen, innocent women and children. I mean outside of the fact that he was a grifter who accumulated personal wealth at the expense of his followers, which makes him bad enough. Wtf Utah!
July 14, 2022
I enjoyed this one, more for the historic information than the chronicling of crime within the colony. It got into a lot of the early Mormon history about Brigham Young and the Mormon settlement of Utah, which is fascinating and awful and I see why they like to try to ignore that part of their history. I also appreciated learning more about Mexican politics and land policy. The stuff about the colony members though- you can sum it up by saying when everyone claims they're the one and only prophet, it's going to cause trouble.
The writing was mostly fine, though every so often there would be a sentence or two thrown into a paragraph that seemed to have absolutely no relationship to anything else that was being said. It didn't take away from the book, but there were a number of times that I was really wondering if I'd missed something because of some misplaced sentence.
The writing was mostly fine, though every so often there would be a sentence or two thrown into a paragraph that seemed to have absolutely no relationship to anything else that was being said. It didn't take away from the book, but there were a number of times that I was really wondering if I'd missed something because of some misplaced sentence.
November 9, 2022
Take Mormon history, blood feuds, current events involving narcotrafficking, water rights, NXIVM meets Mexican (but sort of cross border) polygamist settlements, and add a healthy dose of the author's personal genealogical curiosity and inquiry and... what do you get? A jumbled, but at times quite mind blowing exposé which left me rather confused. The book would have really benefited from maps and family trees. I thought the book bit off more than it could chew in attempting to explain Mexican politics. It left me wanting more when it came to explaining the religious aspects of these communities today. And for all the talk of sisterhood and maternal strength, that was a theme the author wanted to make happen, but probably for lack of interviews, it seemed... contrived.
February 9, 2023
As a history of previously little known polygamist Mormon colonies in Mexico and their connections to US polygamist, the NXIVM cult, and El Chapo, this book is a slow but interesting read. If you get jazzed about Mormon history or cults in general, as I do, it's worth sticking with. If you've picked up this book expecting a true crime story, you'll find it veers almost immediately away from investigating the murders of the 9 women and children from the first chapter. Again, you'll learn a lot about Mormon family trees and politics, but SPOILERS you'll never be satisfied in the matter of the actual murders.
February 5, 2022
I wanted to read this book since I'm distantly related to one of the mothers who was murdered, and that's what drew me into the story. I appreciated the rundown of the events, and that she gave a lot of background information of the historical events that led to the massacre. What I didn't appreciate was her extensive citation of Fawn Brodie's book on Joseph Smith, which has been discredited (and really, there are so many other sources that have come out since the 1940s why wouldn't you?). But overall I had a good experience with this book and would cautiously recommend it to others.
November 13, 2023
Quite disappointed. I found this book to be dull, unfocused, shallow and severely lacking in journalistic merit. Investigation beyond the actual description of the attack is minimal and surface-level. The meat of the book is dedicated to a history of Mormonism and Mormon Polygamy as well as a long, unrelated story of one of the author's ancestor's experience with early Mormon colonization that I can only imagine is there to pad the length of the book so it would surpass 200 pages.
Those who are looking for an in-depth investigation into the crime will be disappointed. Those who are looking for insight into the peculiar and suspicious connections to the NXIVM cult will be left wanting more. The portion of the book dedicated to the attack itself is hardly more than a recap of things you could learn by watching CNN interviews on the matter with some additional speculation from a DEA agent.
Sally Denton's excellent investigation into the Bluegrass Conspiracy had me fooled into thinking I could expect a similar level of intrigue which this book lacks. I also expected a more critical eye into what I believe are more sinister parapolitical elements of this story, but all opportunities to explore this angle with any depth or criticality is simply ignored.
Those who are looking for an in-depth investigation into the crime will be disappointed. Those who are looking for insight into the peculiar and suspicious connections to the NXIVM cult will be left wanting more. The portion of the book dedicated to the attack itself is hardly more than a recap of things you could learn by watching CNN interviews on the matter with some additional speculation from a DEA agent.
Sally Denton's excellent investigation into the Bluegrass Conspiracy had me fooled into thinking I could expect a similar level of intrigue which this book lacks. I also expected a more critical eye into what I believe are more sinister parapolitical elements of this story, but all opportunities to explore this angle with any depth or criticality is simply ignored.
May 8, 2023
So this is the third book I have read about the LeBaron cult. This one was a little bit different in the sense that it was written very recently after the 2019 massacre of three women and their children in Mexico. Part of the book explores this massacre and the politics behind it and looks at some of the different theories about who was responsible for the massacre, the rest of the book is a pretty detailed history of the LeBaron group and also Mormonism and it spread from Joseph Smith.
I actually found the historic part probably more interesting than the recent part, it's amazing how quickly this quasi religion took off and the reason I say quasi religion is not to be distracted to the Mormon religion or the Latter Day Saints, but how it was perverted into this way of controlling women and controlling people with money, power, sex and marriage. I particularly enjoyed how the author showcased two women who came to America from both Denmark and the UK and how their stories unfolded after joining the Mormon movement.
I actually found the historic part probably more interesting than the recent part, it's amazing how quickly this quasi religion took off and the reason I say quasi religion is not to be distracted to the Mormon religion or the Latter Day Saints, but how it was perverted into this way of controlling women and controlling people with money, power, sex and marriage. I particularly enjoyed how the author showcased two women who came to America from both Denmark and the UK and how their stories unfolded after joining the Mormon movement.
March 25, 2024
**Let me clarify that my rating is for the writing and formatting of this novel and does not in any way, shape, or form relate to the story it covers. I will not put a star rating on tragedy but I will put a star rating on writing and formatting.
This was not at all what I was expecting. I enjoyed the portions that actually covered the LeBaron colony itself/the crimes committed within them as they were well explained by the author. However, the book ended up reading more like a history book in most portions which isn’t always a bad thing but, in this case it made the writing drag.
Overall though it did what it set it to do which is inform its readers about its subject. It just did it better in some portions than others in my opinion!
This was not at all what I was expecting. I enjoyed the portions that actually covered the LeBaron colony itself/the crimes committed within them as they were well explained by the author. However, the book ended up reading more like a history book in most portions which isn’t always a bad thing but, in this case it made the writing drag.
Overall though it did what it set it to do which is inform its readers about its subject. It just did it better in some portions than others in my opinion!
Read
August 7, 2022One of the crazier cult stories I’ve heard about! Polygamy, drug cartels, arms dealers, assassin wives, this has a little bit for everybody. I bet Netflix is already salivating to make a documentary, lol. I listened to the audiobook and it was fine but I had to stop trying to remember which family did what. Everybody is a first cousin or a half brother, so it’s confusing. The cartels were also hard to keep track of, for the same reason. Whoever is ultimately to blame for the 2019 massacre, one thing is certain: there’s too many siblings doing too many crimes.
April 7, 2023
2.5-3. Book was kind of hard to follow. Lots of names and feuds and histories. The book also had a hard time deciding what it wanted to be. History? Critique? Journalism? And at points I was bored and wondered why I was reading it. But there is a lot of fascinating and wild stuff. So bizarre that there is an overlap of polygamists, drug cartels, the NXIVM cult, and a surprising amount of violence and murder—all within a couple hour drive of my house.
Read
December 24, 2022Threads woven together in this book: polygyny, early Mormonism, Victorian aristocracy, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, a intra-family blood feud, theological debates, El Chapo and drug cartels, Keith Raniere and NXIVM, Mexican state politics, water rights, Indigenous activists, and America’s abysmal lack of gun control. In just over 200 pages, plus 60+ pages of citations. It’s a lot.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 250 reviews